An exploration of pizza in and around Rochester, NY, one pizzeria at a time

Friday, March 4, 2016

Clemenza's Revisited

It's not often that I go to the same pizzeria two days in a row, but I did so recently at Clemenza's in Mendon. I last reported on Clemenza's in 2011. On my first, mid-afternoon visit, the slice selection was a little sparse, so I went with the basics: one cheese, and one pepperoni and banana peppers. Both were sliced down the middle, so technically I had four slices (which brings to mind the possibly apocryphal story about Yogi Berra asking the guy at a pizzeria to cut his pie into four slices instead of six, because Yogi didn't think he was hungry enough to eat six slices).The crusts were thin, browned underneath with some surface cracking, but pliable enough to fold without breaking in two.
On top, the mozzarella cheese had cooled and congealed a bit, but it wasn't dried out, and retained some chewiness.The sauce was a basic tomato sauce, slightly sweet. The cup and char pepperoni was a little more chewy than crisp. I could've done with a few more slices of banana pepper, but I can never get enough peppers, so that's just me.
The next day I brought home a Clemenza's Meat Lovers pie. It was generally similar to the slices, but of course more freshly baked, and in that respect, better.The crust again displayed some nice charring, not in a leopard-spotty way, but more uniformly. The pie seemed a tad doughier than the slices, but that may have been due in part simply to its relative freshness. The toppings were abundant and added in good proportion to the crust.

Although Mendon's not far from me, I don't pass through there too often. Maybe I should, more often. Clemenza's does a very nice job. Its pizza is something of a hybrid between the New York and Rochester styles - thin, crisp but doughy, and heavily topped. They've got an extensive menu, which I see includes Margherita pizza. I'm making a mental note to check that out sometime.
In my 2011 review, I gave Clemenza's a B+. That still seems about right. I have been shying away from pluses and minuses of late, but I don't want to downgrade it to a B, nor do I think this was quite an "A" pizza. Very good, certainly, just not head and shoulders above the rest. So I'll stick with B+.

Ratings Guide

A: great; one of the best this area has to offerB: pretty good; not top-notch, but definitely good, and better than averageC: OK; nothing special, but it’ll do; typical for our areaD: edible; if you’ve already paid for it, you might as well eat itF: downright bad; toss it and get something else